Why I Love You
by ladyhawk89
Summary: The reasons for loving and being loved don't always make sense. Based on a poem by Shanelle Gabriel. Zutara
1. Chapter 1

_**I saw this poem on Def Jam poetry and I thought it fit Zutara perfectly. It's called **__Why I Love You__**, by Shanelle Gabriel. I hope you enjoy it!**_

_They say the human body  
Has over 50 billion white blood cells…  
And I need every single one  
Because you  
Make me…  
Sick._

Katara watched as Zuko practiced his firebending alone in the field. He had finally mastered making his own lightning and was practicing so he could teach Aang. Zuko turned and saw Katara watching him. He winked at her and blew a her a kiss. Scowling, Katara pretended to catch the kiss and throw it away. Zuko made a show of clutching his heart and falling to his knees. Katara just rolled her eyes and turned to head back to camp, a small smile playing at the edge of her lips. Sometimes she felt that her fiancé was much too self-assured for his own good.

_You are the fish that I would  
Throw back  
But for some reason  
As opposites,  
We attract!_

Years ago, when she pictured her ideal man, Katara had dreamed up the opposite of Zuko. She wanted someone who was calm and constant as the ocean tides, loving as the princes she read about in her fairytales, and handsome as the marble carving of Shu from Omashu. Imagine Katara's surprise when she realized she was attracted to Zuko. She fought it so hard, but eventually, Katara had to give in and realize that opposites attract.

_We show our admiration in love taps,  
"I Hate You!" matches,  
And sarcastic wise cracks.  
All the qualities of my soulmate…  
You lack._

"You are _the_ most irritating woman I have _ever _met!" Zuko shouted. Katara stormed up to him and poked him in the shoulder.

"And you are the most self-involved, pig-headed, short tempered man _I've_ ever met! You always do this when something doesn't go your way! My stew is _not_ bland!"

"You know Katara, sometimes I don't know why I asked you to marry me!"

"Fine! You don't want to marry me? Here take your stupid necklace back and…" Katara bristled and fumbled with her blue and red engagement necklace. Zuko had spent months working on it in secret and now it hung around Katara's neck in place of her mother's- now worn as a bracelet. Zuko paled as she tried to remove the necklace. He put his hand over hers to stop her from taking it off.

"Wait," he pleaded. Katara glare up into his eyes, trying to stay angry. But she never could stay mad when she looked into his honey brown eyes.

"I'm sorry. Your stew isn't bland," he whispered, pulling her into his arms. Katara rested her head underneath his chin and smiled.

"I'm sorry, too. I'll put more fireflakes in your bowl next time. Promise."

_Your attempts at being romantic  
Are simply pathetic.  
The last massage you gave me  
Required a paramedic.  
The first time you cooked me dinner  
I had to pump my stomach._

Zuko, for his part, did on occasion try to make romantic overtures for his fiancée. Once he took her for a midnight stroll through the woods near his family's summer house- once again functional now that he was Firelord. He forgot, however, that the path through the woods had not yet been completely cleared and the couple wound up getting rashes from the fire ivy growing in patches along the path.

He also tried giving her a massage once. Unfortunately, his only experience with massages was with the medic on his ship and he wasn't known for his gentle hands. Zuko copied his style and…well Katara wound up sporting some new bruises and Sokka added another reason to his list of reasons to want Zuko dead.

Then there was the time Zuko tried to cook for Katara. He caught a couple of rabbits and roasted them with herbs and root vegetables. It looked and smelled delicious and they dug into their romantic dinner for two. It was the perfect evening…until they realized that the meat wasn't cooked all the way through. They ended the evening with a race to the toilet, moaning with the agonizing cramps of food poisoning.

_And you just like picking fights.  
If I say go left,  
You go right.  
If I say it's day,  
You swear it's night._

Not that admitting their mutual attraction made their relationship any easier. They fought almost daily over the stupidest things. One morning it was over a misplaced bowl. It was Zuko's turn to gather them and he brought back one less than he was supposed to bring.

"_I'm_ doing all the housekeeping crap around here! The least you could do is bring all the bowls!" Zuko rolled his eyes and threw his hands up.

"I brought everyone's dishes! I don't know what happened to the other one! Maybe _you_ lost it! Ever think of that?" He pointed an accusing finger at her. She turned red and shook a ladle at him threatening me.

"Don't you take that tone with me, you moron!"

"Oh, _I'm_ a moron? Let me tell you…"

"Excuse me." They turned to see an amused Sokka standing behind them. "As much as I love watching you two fight, I think I should give this back before I forget and have to wash it myself." The couple looked down at the bowl Sokka had in his hand. Zuko smirked at Katara smugly. She at least had the grace to look embarrassed. With a mumbled apology to Zuko, she finished the dishes.

"It's alright. You're cute when you're mad," he whispered, kissing her temple. Sokka glared after his future brother-in-law as he went to go practice with Aang

_You still think our anniversary  
Is the 10th of May;  
It's the 9th  
…of March._

"Happy anniversary, Katara!" Katara looked up from her book bewildered. Toph and Aang looked over from where they were discussing the best shops to get Fire Nation sweets in town with Iroh. Toph stifled a laugh as they watched Zuko cross the room with a bunch of firelilies and white quartz roses. Katara blinked at the gift in his hand then looked up at Zuko incredulously.

"Zuko, it's May 10th," she told him. Zuko grinned at her proudly.

"I know. I've got the entire evening planned. We're going for dinner at the best restaurant in the Fire Nation. Then we're going to the circus- I got us a private box-, then after that, we'll go for a moonlight boat ride on…What's wrong Katara?" His fiancée had burried her face in her hands and was shaking her head.

"Zuko, we've been together for two years and you still think our anniversary is the 10th of May! It's the 9th. Of March." Zuko stood there looking dumbfounded, flowers dangling forgotten in his hand.

"Um…are you sure?"

"Yes!" Iroh, Toph, and Aang answered in unison.

_Now, I'm a country kind of girl;  
You like the city life.  
_

"Zuko, we _live_ in a city! Why can't we stay in the country for a few weeks?"

"Because we _always_ stay in the country! I can't be the only one tired of if! Guys?" Zuko turned to Toph, Sokka, and Aang for help, but they all turned away and pretended not to listen. Zuko sighed in frustration and turned back to Katara.

"What's wrong with Ba Sing Se?" he demanded. "You loved it the last time we were there!"

"The last time we were there, the king talked us into cleaning out his bear's stall," Katara retorted. Zuko threw his hands in the air.

"That was three years ago! The king hired someone else to do that!"

"That's _not_ the point!"

"Uh…guys?" Aang interrupted cautiously. "How about we spend half the vacation in Ba Sing Se and half in the country?" Katara and Zuko grudgingly agreed…then began arguing about where they would go first.

_I'm a revolutionary woman;  
You think we should all be barefoot housewives_

"No way! You still need me!" Katara shouted. "I'm not giving up being Ambassador!" Katara stormed over to the edge of the pond and glared at the water.

"Katara, be reasonable," Zuko pleaded. He wrapped his arms around Katara's waist. "You're about to be the Fire Lady. You'll be taking on all the responsibilities of being my wife. Do you really want to juggle that _and_ being the Water Tribe Ambassador?" Katara relaxed into Zuko's arms and muttered that he made _some _sense.

"Well, what does a Fire Lady do?" she looked over her shoulder at Zuko. He shrugged.

"You'd have to greet foreign dignitaries and entertain their wives, make sure the palace is running smoothly, but mostly you have to give me heirs."

_SPLOOSH!_

Palace servants looked up startled as their Fire Lord stormed through the corridors sopping wet and muttering about crazy female waterbenders and their short tempers.

_._

_I remember the last time I cried…  
You gently  
Wiped my eyes,  
And whispered in my ears,  
"Baby…  
Suck it up."_

Zuko found Katara sitting on a bench in the garden, crying softly. Instantly he was at her side, holding her and asking what was wrong.

"My father and my brother," she told him. "They hate that I'm marrying you. They won't say it outright, but they haven't responded to the wedding invitation. And when I asked my father to come look at wedding dresses with me, he refused. I just want them to be happy for me! I want them to like you! Is that too much to ask?" Zuko sighed and gently held Katara's face in his hands and wiped her tears away with his calloused thumb.

"Katara, I'm used to people not liking me. But your brother and father like me well enough. They'd probably hate _anyone_ who married you." Katara shook her head.

"I don't want you to be hated by my father and brother. They're going to be your _family_." Zuko fought the urge to roll his eyes- he knew _all_ about strong family ties- and sighed.

"Well Katara, you can't force them to like me, so I guess you'll just have to suck it up." He kiss Katara's forehead and dragged his dumbstruck fiancé back into the palace.

_And I know it's bugged,  
But I still love you,  
Even when we fall off track.  
Cause for some reason as opposites,  
We attract.  
_

"You know Zuko, sometimes I forget why I even fell in love with you!" Katara growled. She sat at a table littered with fabric swatches and cake samples- all of which she was considering sending back. Zuko shrugged his shoulders.

"Opposites attract," he answered simply. "Or at least that's what Uncle told me." Katara rolled her eyes and went back to picking out her wedding colors.

_And truth be told,_

_That romantic crap usually doesn't last._

_But what matters most is that  
You complement me  
Like air through my lungs._

"Katara?" The young woman in question looked up from the book she was reading at her fiancé. He looked down at his feet and shifted uncomfortably. Katara smiled a little. She and Iroh were the only ones allowed to see this self-conscious side of the newly minted Fire Lord. Katara moved over to give Zuko room on the chaise lounge she was reclining on. He sat next to her and she leaned against his side.

Zuko looked down at the woman who was going to be his wife in a few weeks and smiled. He'd lucked out, he knew it. He hadn't ever done anything to deserve a woman like her. That thought made him frown. Zuko realized that he really hadn't done anything to deserve her. All the attempts he had made at being romantic were met with embarrassing- and often public- failure. There was no reason for Katara to be with him.

Katara looked up a Zuko and stroked his scarred cheek. Something was bothering her husband to be.

"What's the matter?" she asked him. Zuko frowned and tried to figure out how to word his reply.

"Am I…romantic?" he asked. Katara blinked owlishly at him then chuckled.

"Of course not!" she told him, slapping his chest lightly. "You suck at romance." Zuko's frown deepened and he looked away from Katara to scowl at the wall. Katara smirked and kissed his cheek.

"You're not the romantic sort, Zuko," she said. "And I wouldn't have it any other way." Zuko looked back at her, confused, so she explained. "You aren't romantic, but you're sweet and brave and loyal. Besides, let's face it, all that romantic stuff is all superficial." Zuko thought of all the romantic dates he had had with Mai, and the date he had with Jin, and he had to agree with Katara. Maybe the romance in their relationship wasn't in moonlit strolls or picnics on hilltops, but in moments like this, when they were being completely open and honest with each other. Zuko kissed Katara's forehead and buried his nose in her hair.

"I love you," he told her. Katara smiled and snuggled closer into his side.

"Back at ya," she whispered.

_And there are over a trillion nerves  
In the central nervous system…  
You get on every single one.  
You know you do…_

Three weeks later, Katara and Zuko glared at each other across the table while the wedding planner tried to make herself invisible. They had been in the room all morning trying to work out the last minuet details of their wedding, but barely 20 minuets into the planning session, they were already irritated at each other. An hour later, the wedding planner felt that she could cut the tension with a knife. She gathered her seating charts and fabric swatches and backed towards the door.

"I think maybe I should come back later," she said. The couple didn't seem to hear her, but sat glowering at each other.

"Why can't you decide on a color?" Katara asked shortly. "This _is_ your wedding, too. Would it kill you to give an opinion every once in a while?" Zuko rolled his eyes and crossed his eyes.

"I don't care what color the table cloths are," he retorted. "I don't see why it matters. It's going to be dark in the ballroom most of the night anyway."

"But people are still going to see them! Don't you want the night to be special?" Katara's voice had risen to the point where she was almost yelling. She stook up and slammed her hands down on the table and stood up over Zuko.

"I'm marrying you! Isn't that special enough?"Zuko yelled back. "Come on, Katara! After everything we've been through, do you really care what the wedding colors are?" Katara stood up and folded her arms across her chest.

"Yes," was her simple reply. Zuko rolled his eyes and huffed irritably.

"Lavender," he said finally. Katara frowned and sat down and frowned.

"But I really liked the yellow." Zuko growled and rolled his eyes. Katara laughed and reached across the table for his hand.

"I'm joking. Lavender and light green it is," she said.

"You can be so annoying," Zukor muttered, taking her hand. Katara kissed his knuckles.

"And you get on my last nerve. But that's why I love you." Zuko scoffed.

"We must be a couple of masochists." Katara chuckled and nodded. Then she turned towards the wedding planer to confirm the colors, only to find an empty seat.

"Hey, where did Niu go?" she asked. Zuko shrugged and stood up.

"Let's go to the turtle duck pond. This can wait a couple of hours." Katara stood up and took Zuko's arm.

"Alright."

_  
But for some reason,  
That's why I love you._


	2. Chapter 2

_**This is based off of another poem that I saw on Def Jam Poetry. I saw it a few years ago on Youtube, and I thought it was adorable. I wanted to make a Zutara fic around it, but it took me a while. Better late than never, right? I'm experimenting with writing in the first person, so I used both Katara and Zuko's voices for this piece. You should be able to tell them apart fairly easily. **_

_**The Session**_

It has been two years since we said 'I do' and though I my wife much as the day we married, Katara's temper hasn't changed much-

_Excuse me! Let me just jump in and say that _Zuko_ isn't the world's most temperate man himself. _

Dear, it's _my_ turn to speak now.

_Well, don't make it seem like all of this is _all_ my fault. _

I won't! Anyway, as I was saying, I love my wife. I couldn't imagine spending my life with anyone else. It's just- how do I put this? Sometimes life's a pain-

_Did you just say _I'm_ a pain?_

I said sometimes _life's_ a pain, but I think I'm still learning how to share my life with someone-

_And not doing that great of a job, blanket-hog._

-and Uncle said a little rockiness in the beginning is normal. Right, Katara?

_Look, let me just say, I don't think we're doing too badly. Zuko and I knew what we were getting into when we started dating. I don't think we've ever had a point in our relationship that was completely free from arguments. Our friends told us we were crazy-_

And we were.

_Don't interrupt, Zuko!_

Seriously? You wouldn't stop jumping in when I was talking!

_Here we go again! Can we not argue right now, please? Now where was I? Oh, yes. As much as we try not to, we seem destined to argue about everything. Sometimes it drives me _crazy!_ Though, sometimes it's kind of fun._

Fun? You _are_ crazy!

_Come on, Zuko, you know you enjoy sparing with me. _

Well, she does keep my bending sharp.

_And your mind. We argue politics a lot._

Yeah, we do. It's actually really helpful sometimes. She's a wonderful Fire Lady. But she's still a few cups short of a tea set.

_Zuko! _

Katara!

_You see? Do you see how he teases me and provokes me? It's like he _wants_ to fight with me! And I fall for it a lot. Love seems to be the misunderstanding between two fools, because like two fools we argue over foolishness._

That was pretty.

_Thank you. _

She's right. We don't argue over normal things, like money-

_Because we don't have any. Our income depends on the national budget and the Fire Nation is still recovering from trying to take over the world. _

It's not like we're paupers, Katara. But we don't argue about money, we argue about things like- like our most recent argument. Remodeling our room.

_And we don't argue about how to decorate our room or what color to paint the walls. We argue about _how_ to paint the walls._

And tell them why the Fire Lord and Fire Lady have to worry about paining their own walls.

_Because I thought it would be a fun couples project to do together, but _Zuko-

Now, _I_ wanted to hire someone because what do I know about painting a room, right? But she insists on doing it ourselves-

_So like any other day, we argued._

But this time was different because I _know _I'm right!

_Puh- lease! He's not right! _

I am right! And I mean deep down in my soul I _know_ I'm right!

_So last night, we argued fussed and fought. _

I decided I was _not_ giving in this time.

_And I refused to lose! So we tested that ridiculous rule that everyone gives you when you first get married about not going to bed with unresolved issues._

My sanity! So we spent half the night arguing and right about the time Katara accuses me of dozing off while she's talking-

_You were _drooling_ on my shoulder!_

Our infant son, Lu Ten starts crying.

_I told him to go get him._

It was _your _turn to get him! I got him the night before that!

_Oh, so the nine months he spent in _my_ womb and the sixteen hours of labor mean nothing?_

So then we argued about who's going to get the baby, and Katara was way angrier than before. By the time we got everything straightened out, it was time for me to get ready for work. So I just got dressed and went to my office. A few hours later I'm at my desk and I'm working-no I'm dozing- when a servant comes in with a note from my wife saying-

_We're. _STILL. _ Arguing!_

And like most men, at that point, I wasn't even sure _why _ we were arguing! I just knew that I'm _not_ supposed to lose nearly as often as I seem to with her! And I'm tired and worn out-

_But I'm still ready to rumble!_

All day long I've got this fight on my mind- only to get back to our private chambers to find that she made dinner.

_Because I can make the mature decision to let a fight go. _

Yeah, occasionally.

_Hey!_

So, we sat by the fire and played cards and ate off the chipped plates she insisted on keeping from when we camped out on Fire Island.

_It's the dinner ware we used on our first date!_

I remember, Katara. So Lu Ten was sleeping and we were having the best date we had in a long time.

_And that's when I remembered why I love this man so much. Opposites attract._

And she's the Yin inside my Yang. And even though we argue way more than I thought any happily married couple should, I can't imagine my life without her.

_I'd rather fight with him every night than have a 'normal' relationship with anyone else. _

Do you want to take a walk by the turtle-duck pond?

_Yes! Let's go! Good-bye and thanks! Same time next week, yeah?_

Paku, the marriage counselor watched the couple leave bemusedly. Of all the couples he had to help before, the Fire Lord and his wife were the most confusing. He looked at his notes and shook his head. On paper they should work at all, but they were happier than a lot of young couples he had seen. And chatty. He never got a word in edgewise. With a sigh, Paku gathered his papers and books and prepared to leave. His services weren't really needed here.

_The End_

_**I hope you enjoyed it. Please review! Also, if you'd like to see the poem that inspired this piece, just copy/paste the link!**_

watch?v=cpg0YUB7Y-s&list=PL381D669FBD40A462&index=1&feature=plpp_video


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